Chennai, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) President M.K. Stalin on Saturday urged Chief Minister K. Palaniswami to take charge of the Health Department for "effective management" of Covid-19 outbreak in the sourthern state.

In a statement issued a day after Health Secretary Beela Rajesh was repeaced by J. Radhakrishnan, Stalin alleged there was no coordination at the ground level in preventing the coronavirus spread and its management.

C. Vijayabaskar is the Health Minister of Tamil Nadu.

Stalin, Leader of the Opposition in Assembly, said there should be transparency in the declaration of Covid-19 death numbers and there should be increased testing to detect infected persons.